Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Contracting the tissues or blood vessels; astringent.
- adj. Tending to check bleeding by contracting the tissues or blood vessels; hemostatic.
- n. A styptic drug or substance.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Astringent; oonstrictive; binding.
- Having the quality of checking hemorrhage or bleeding; stanching.
- n. An astringent; something causing constriction or constraint.
- n. A substance employed to check a flow of blood by application to the bleeding orifice or surface.
Wiktionary
- adj. Bringing about contraction of tissues, especially to stop bleeding
- n. A substance used for styptic results.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Producing contraction; stopping bleeding; having the quality of restraining hemorrhage when applied to the bleeding part; astringent.
- n. (Med.) A styptic medicine.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a drug that causes contraction of body tissues and canals
- adj. tending to check bleeding by contracting the tissues or blood vessels
Etymologies
- From Latin stypticus, from Ancient Greek στυπτικός (stuptikos), from στύφειν (stuphein, "to contract"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English stiptik, from Old French stiptique, from Latin stȳpticus, from Greek stūptikos, from stūphein, to contract. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Makes sense, I suppose, since it's also used in styptic pencils. bullfroghrr”
From The Tips Box: App Purchases, Paragraphs, To-Do Time Limits | Lifehacker Australia
“Smaller than this Common Burnet is the Salad Burnet, _Poterium sanguisorba, quod sanguineos fluxus sistat_, a useful [431] styptic, which is also cordial, and promotes perspiration.”
“The Low Latin equivalent of the Arabic _tubb [= a] q_ "styptic," is _bitumen_, whence”
“I had prepped precocious Cindy Hammer for a feature on Camp Pa-He-Tsi in Winnisquam, Michigan, using every tool in my portable makeup kit; styptic pencil, upper armpit blusher, highlighter.”
Fictionaut: A Day in the Life of a Supermodel Armpit Makeup Artist
“I never met a writer who didn't bleed at the slightest unfavorable comment, and no number of favorable or even ecstatic remarks will serve as a styptic pencil.”
"...there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."
“But I wonder whether you could affix a styptic pencil to the contraption, too.”
The Washington Post: Now people who can't bend over can still shave their legs
“They want shaved faces, preferably with little pieces of toilet paper stuck to them or the faint aroma of a styptic pencil.”
The Washington Post: Hollywood heartthrobs come to dinner (now if they would only leave)
“Makes sense, I suppose, since it's also used in styptic pencils.”
From The Tips Box: App Purchases, Paragraphs, To-Do Time Limits | Lifehacker Australia
“I will get a styptic pencil, or a bandage, or some concrete mortar, and you will be good as new in just a minute.”
“I found him in the lavatory, straight razor in hand, his half-shaven chin dotted in styptic, the water of his bowl a not unpleasant shade of pink.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘styptic’.
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phrontistery-s
from phrontistery.info
sabaton, sabbatarian, sabbulonarium, sabelline, sabin, sable, sabliere, sabot, sabretache, sabulous, saburration, saccade and 1593 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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doubtlessly reduntant
pedentive, pendentive, fantod, nonpareil, apposite, anfractuous, amanuensis, sherbet, erumpent, verdigris, styptic, tektitic and 24 more...
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Potpourri
eponymous, aa, pulchritude, gizmo, macabre, sui generis, solecism, solipsism, eldritch, samizdat, queue, obsequious and 469 more...
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erinnbatykefer's Words
ewer, lace, grenadine, wick, haruspex, augur, distal, proximal, supine, labyrinthine, rivers, monongahela and 176 more...
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Verba Dilecta
delectable, notate, pauciloquy, paucity, pauciloquent, paucify, interscapilium, uropygium, inferna, nota, equipollent, prepollent and 677 more...
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Clarissa, Or, The History of a Young ...
These words are from Samuel Richardson's novel Clarissa, Or, The History of a Young Lady, 1747-48
adumbrate, virago, varlet, rencounter, akimbo, palliate, amanuensis, amok, equipage, cully, se'ennight, resentments and 560 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, S
scrunch, solace, sabotage, saccade, sacerdotal, sacrilegious, sacristy, snappy, skew, steadfast, scowl, scorch and 781 more...
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slumry's Words
cattywampus, ingratiate, lackadaisical, exactitude, exfoliate, fulminate, circumnavigation, circuitous, debride, sidle, sequester, chicory and 1002 more...
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Faves
nepenthe, cupidity, anodyne, obdurate, doleful, obsolescent, quale, piquant, velleity, inchoate, disport, facile and 366 more...
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Consider the Lobster
By David Foster Wallace
percussive, discursive, lugubrious, docent, assiduously, berm, wag, bonmot, imbroglio, telegraph, fissile, rube and 220 more...
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Infinite Jest
Words taken from Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace.
prorector, monograph, post-fourier, snuffle, rototremble, creatus, enfilade, subanimalistic, balletic, espadrilles, leonine, cirri and 1153 more...
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Infinite Jest
Words to remember from DFW's "Infinite Jest"
wen, matriculation, circumflex, lapidary, effete, sotto, hypertrophy, presbyopic, ideogram, pinion, parquet, nelson and 152 more...
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madamepsychosis's Words
mollify, salubrious, prandial, coup de grace, ineluctable, metempsychosis, pedant, conatus, oeuvre, laconic, solipsism, vapid and 265 more...
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lee_d's Words
neologism, epicaricacy, chillax, arrears, locution, ressentiment, facticity, glib, escritoire, epicurian, alacrity, arbitrageur and 150 more...
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fbharjo's Words
jumelle, kef, kenspeckle, lautitious, essentic, pilpulistic, impavid, cicurant, clou, chrysostomic, miasma, teleology and 1625 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for styptic.
reesetee Yep. Similar to what people do for pet birds. Oct 22, 2008
chained_bear We kept styptic powder on hand for the (fortunately rare) occasions when we trimmed our guinea pigs' nails. (If you cut a little too far, it nicks the blood vessel inside the nail.) Oct 22, 2008
minerva To be sure, I shall break a vessel: there's no doubt of that; and a bottle of Eaton's styptic shall be sent for; but no doctor.
Lovelace to Belford, Clarissa by Samuel Richardson Dec 15, 2007
reesetee I think styptic pencils are made of anhydrous aluminum sulfate, which causes blood vessel constriction where you apply it. The ones I remember looked like small pieces of chalk. :-) Jun 22, 2007
jennarenn I have read about these, but always wondered how they worked. Jun 22, 2007
seanahan It sounds cool, I probably wouldn't ever be able to use it, but it has a nice ring to it. Jun 22, 2007
arby I know, this word is cool - it's like a cross between cryptic and stygian. Jun 21, 2007
slumry lovely word which surfaces occassionally in my brain--when I was a child, my father used a styptic pencil when he cut himself shaving. Haven't heard much talk of styptic pencils lately. . . Jun 15, 2007